eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Ryanodine receptor 2 inhibition reduces dispersion of cardiac repolarization, improves contractile function, and prevents sudden arrhythmic death in failing hearts

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Pooja Joshi
   2. Shanea Estes
   3. Deeptankar DeMazumder
   4. Bjorn C Knollmann
   5. Swati Dey

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study examined the use of dantrolene, a Ryanodine Receptor stabilizer, in slowing pathological progression of pressure-overload heart failure in a guinea pig model and reducing arrhythmias. Convincing data were collected and analyzed using validated methodology and can be used as a starting point for future studies of dantrolene in Ca2+ handling in ROS production and further deterioration of cardiac function in chronic heart failure.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Recursive self-embedded vocal motifs in wild orangutans

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Adriano R Lameira
   2. Madeleine E Hardus
   3. Andrea Ravignani
   4. Teresa Raimondi
   5. Marco Gamba

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The paper represents a novel application of recursion theory to the long call vocalisations of orangutans to demonstrate repetitive, rhythmic sub-structuring. The authors use detailed acoustic analyses to show compelling evidence for self-embedded and nested isochronic motifs. These fundamental results have the potential to significantly advance current approaches used to compare nonhuman communication systems with human language.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. DYRK1A interacts with the tuberous sclerosis complex and promotes mTORC1 activity

   This article has 18 authors:

   1. Pinhua Wang
   2. Sunayana Sarkar
   3. Menghuan Zhang
   4. Tingting Xiao
   5. Fenhua Kong
   6. Zhe Zhang
   7. Deepa Balasubramanian
   8. Nandan Jayaram
   9. Sayantan Datta
   10. Ruyu He
   11. Ping Wu
   12. Peng Chao
   13. Ying Zhang
   14. Michael Washburn
   15. Laurence A Florens
   16. Sonal Nagarkar-Jaiswal
   17. Manish Jaiswal
   18. Man Mohan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This fundamental study identifies the kinase DYRK1A as a novel component of the tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) protein complex, which is central to cellular growth and cell size. The findings presented here have broad implications for how cell size and growth is regulated. The methodology and analysis are convincing and support the findings.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Optical mapping of ground reaction force dynamics in freely behaving Drosophila melanogaster larvae

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Jonathan H Booth
   2. Andrew T Meek
   3. Nils M Kronenberg
   4. Stefan R Pulver
   5. Malte C Gather

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study reports important findings about new locomotory dynamics of crawling Drosophila larva based on imaging the reaction forces during larval crawling. The evidence with the new high-resolution microscopy method is compelling, as it significantly improves the spatial, temporal, and force resolution compared to previous methods for studying Drosophila larva and could be applied to other crawling organisms. The manuscript explains the new technology, WARP microscopy, and provides analysis of the data to characterize small animal behavior and discover new crawling-associated anatomical features and motor patterns. The work will be of interest to the broad neuroscience community interested in the mechanisms of locomotion in a highly tractable model.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Intra- and interspecific diversity in a tropical plant clade alter herbivory and ecosystem resilience

   This article has 18 authors:

   1. Ari Grele
   2. Tara J Massad
   3. Kathryn A Uckele
   4. Lee A Dyer
   5. Yasmine Antonini
   6. Laura Braga
   7. Matthew L Forister
   8. Lidia Sulca
   9. Massuo Kato
   10. Humberto G Lopez
   11. André R Nascimento
   12. Thomas Parchman
   13. Wilmer R Simbaña
   14. Angela M Smilanich
   15. John O Stireman
   16. Eric J Tepe
   17. Thomas Walla
   18. Lora A Richards

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important, large experimental study examines the effects of plant species richness, plant genotypic richness, and soil water availability on herbivory patterns for Piper species in several tropical sites. The authors find solid evidence that water availability, as well as intra- and interspecific plant diversity, influence herbivory and herbivore diversity, but that the effects differ geographically.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Functional ultrasound imaging of stroke in awake rats

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Clément Brunner
   2. Gabriel Montaldo
   3. Alan Urban

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important proof-of-concept study strongly supports the utility of functional ultrasound imaging for evaluating cerebral hemodynamics in rat models of brain injury. Functional ultrasound affords a distinct coverage/spatial/temporal resolution tradeoff when compared to other modalities for studying brain hemodynamics. The solid data presented indicate high fidelity of the recordings, a particular feat given that the rats were awake. On the other hand, single slice imaging and complexity of registration of subsequent imaging sessions limit the usefulness of the approach, particularly for quantitative imaging, and the small sample size will need to be followed up with and verified by future studies. This work will be of interest to researchers working in functional neuroimaging and more precisely with preclinical models of stroke in rodents.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. I-Spin live, an open-source software based on blind-source separation for real-time decoding of motor unit activity in humans

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Julien Rossato
   2. François Hug
   3. Kylie Tucker
   4. Ciara Gibbs
   5. Lilian Lacourpaille
   6. Dario Farina
   7. Simon Avrillon

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Myomatrix arrays for high-definition muscle recording

   This article has 52 authors:

   1. Bryce Chung
   2. Muneeb Zia
   3. Kyle A Thomas
   4. Jonathan A Michaels
   5. Amanda Jacob
   6. Andrea Pack
   7. Matthew J Williams
   8. Kailash Nagapudi
   9. Lay Heng Teng
   10. Eduardo Arrambide
   11. Logan Ouellette
   12. Nicole Oey
   13. Rhuna Gibbs
   14. Philip Anschutz
   15. Jiaao Lu
   16. Yu Wu
   17. Mehrdad Kashefi
   18. Tomomichi Oya
   19. Rhonda Kersten
   20. Alice C Mosberger
   21. Sean O'Connell
   22. Runming Wang
   23. Hugo Marques
   24. Ana Rita Mendes
   25. Constanze Lenschow
   26. Gayathri Kondakath
   27. Jeong Jun Kim
   28. William Olson
   29. Kiara N Quinn
   30. Pierce Perkins
   31. Graziana Gatto
   32. Ayesha Thanawalla
   33. Susan Coltman
   34. Taegyo Kim
   35. Trevor Smith
   36. Ben Binder-Markey
   37. Martin Zaback
   38. Christopher K Thompson
   39. Simon Giszter
   40. Abigail Person
   41. Martyn Goulding
   42. Eiman Azim
   43. Nitish Thakor
   44. Daniel O'Connor
   45. Barry Trimmer
   46. Susana Q Lima
   47. Megan R Carey
   48. Chethan Pandarinath
   49. Rui M Costa
   50. J Andrew Pruszynski
   51. Muhannad Bakir
   52. Samuel J Sober

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important paper reports major technical advances for in vivo intramuscular electrical recording from multiple motor units in behaving animals. The paper includes compelling demonstrations of the efficacy of this new technique in multiple animal species. This new muscle recording method has the potential to provide new insight into a wide range of questions in motor neuroscience.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. SNAP25 disease mutations change the energy landscape for synaptic exocytosis due to aberrant SNARE interactions

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Anna Kádková
   2. Jacqueline Murach
   3. Maiken Østergaard
   4. Andrea Malsam
   5. Jörg Malsam
   6. Fabio Lolicato
   7. Walter Nickel
   8. Thomas H Söllner
   9. Jakob Balslev Sørensen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study documents important findings on three variants in SNAP25 that are associated with developmental and epileptic encephalopathy. The thorough characterization of synaptic release and in vitro vesicle fusion phenotypes provides interesting information about the nature of the SNAP25 variants. The evidence supporting the claims is compelling, and this work will be of interest to neuroscientists working on SNAP25, SNAP25-associated encephalopathy, and synaptic vesicle exocytosis.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Differential increase of hippocampal subfield volume after socio-affective mental training relates to reductions in diurnal cortisol

    This article has 9 authors:

    1. Sofie Louise Valk
    2. Veronika Engert
    3. Lara Puhlmann
    4. Roman Linz
    5. Benoit Caldairou
    6. Andrea Bernasconi
    7. Neda Bernasconi
    8. Boris C Bernhardt
    9. Tania Singer

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      This important work examines the potential utility of socio-emotional and socio-cognitive mental training on hippocampal subfield structure and function, and cortisol levels. The authors provide convincing evidence that CA1-3 volume is sensitive to socio-emotional training, with changes related to function plasticity and cortisol levels. Further, the authors provide evidence of change across all subfields and training modules related to stress.

    Reviewed by eLife